pols207

Counties

Geographical subdivisions of state government

Municipalities

Political jurisdictions, such as cities, villages, or towns, incorporated under state law to provide governance to defined geographical areas.

County Commission System

A form of county governance in which executive, legislative, and administrative powers are vested in elected commissioners.

Council-Executive System

A form of county governance in which legislative powers are vested in a county commission and executive powers are vested in an independently elected executive.

Commission-Administrator System

A form of county governance in which executive and legislative powers reside with an elected commission, which hires a professional executive to manage the day-to-day operations of government.

Mayor

The elected chief executive of a municipality

City Council

A municipality's legislature

City Manager

An official appointed to be the chief administrator of a municipality

Mayor-Council System

A form of municipal governance in which there is an elected executive and an elected legislature.

City Commission System

A form of municipal governance in which executive, legislative, and administrative powers are vested in elected city commissioners.

Council-Manager System

A form of municipal governance in which the day-to-day administration of government is carried out by a professional administrator.

Special Districts

Local governmental units created for a single purpose, such as water distribution

Dillon's Rule

the legal principle that says local governments can exercise only the powers granted to them by state government

Home Rule

The right of a locality to self-government, usually granted through a charter.

Charter

A document that outlines the powers, organization, and responsibilities of a local government.

Metropolitan Area

A populous region typically comprising a city and surrounding communities that have a high degree of social and economic integration.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

An area with a city of 50,000 or more people, together with adjacent urban communities that have strong ties to the central city.

Megaregion

An urban area made up of several large cities and their surrounding urban areas that creates an interlocking economic and social system

Edgeless Cities

office and retail complexes without clear boundaries

sprawl

The rapid growth of a metropolitan area, typically as a result of specific types of zoning and development

Zoning laws

Regulations that control how land can be used

Low-Density Development

Development practices that spread (rather than concentrate) populations across the land

Leapfrog Development

Development practices in which new developments jump - or leapfrog - over established developments, leaving undeveloped or underdeveloped land between developed areas.

Impact Fees

fees that municipalities charge builders of new housing or commercial developments to help offset the costs of extending services

Car-Dependent Living

A situation in which owning a car for transportation is a necessity; an outcome of low-density development.

Exurbs

Municipalities in rural areas that ring suburbs. They typically serve as bedroom communities for the prosperous, providing rural homes with easy access to urban areas.

Urban Growth Boundary (UGB)

a border established around an urban area that is intended to control the density and type of development

Regional Council

A planning and advisory organization whose members include multiple local governments.

Inter-jurisdictional Agreement (IJA)

A formal or informal agreement between two or more local governments to cooperate on a program or policy

Annexation

The legal incorporation of one jurisdiction or territory into another

Gentrification

The physical rehabilitation of urban areas, which attracts investment from developers and drives up property values

State Board of Education

Top policymaking body for education in each of the 50 states, usually consisting of appointees selected by the governor

Departments of Education

State-level agencies responsible for overseeing public education

Accreditation

A certification process in which outside experts visit a school or college to evaluate whether it is meeting minimum quality standards

School Boards

elected or appointed bodies that determine major policies and budgets for school districts

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

Federal law passed in 1965 as part of President Johnson's Great Society initiative; steered federal funds to improve local schools, particularly those attended primarily by low-income and minority students

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

Federal law enacted in January 2002 that introduced new accountability measures for elementary and secondary schools in all states receiving federal education aid.

Common Core State Standards

A 2009 education initiative that has created a uniform set of learning expectations in English and math for students at the end of each grade.

charter schools

Public schools, often with unique themes, managed by teachers, principals, social workers, or nonprofit groups. The charter school movement was launched in the early 1990s

Probation

Supervised punishment in the community

Common Law

Law composed of judges' legal opinions that reflects community practices and evolves over time.

Parole

supervised early release from prison

Stop and Frisk

A police tactic that allows police officers to stop, question, and search citizens under a set of narrowly defined circumstances.

Public Health

The area of medicine that deals with the protection and improvement of citizen health and hygiene through government agencies.

Medicare

federal health insurance program for elderly citizens

Medicaid

A joint state and federal health insurance program that serves low-income individuals and children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Entitlement Program

A government-run program that guarantees unlimited assistance to those who meet its eligibility requirements, no matter how high the cost

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Passed in 1996, this welfare program provided federal assistance in the form of block grants to states, which have great flexibility in designing their programs.

Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

A joint federal-state program designed to expand health care coverage to children whose parents earn income above the poverty line but still are too poor to afford insurance

Managed Care

An arrangement for the provision of health care whereby an agency acts as an intermediary between consumers and health care providers.

Characteristics of Counties

-States divided themselves into these smaller geographical units, primarily for administrative convenience.

-Called parishes in Louisiana, and boroughs in Alaska.

-Counties are typically the largest local government.

-County governments tend to be more important in the South than the Northeast

-County governments are historically rural governments

-Primary funding source controlled by county governments is the property tax

-Counties serve as "branch offices" for the state government

Number of Local Governments

90,000 throughout the U.S

Largest City Council

New York City with 51 Members

Missing Level of Government?

Regional Governments- nothing in U.S Constitution that mentions this.

Characteristics of Sprawl

1. Single-Use Zoning

2. Low Density Zoning

3. Leapfrog Development.

4. Car-Dependent Living

5. Fragmentation of Land-Use Power

San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez

1973- equal school funding is not a federal constitutional right.

Common Core State Standards (Concepts)-

- A total of 41 states, the District of Columbia, and four U.S territories voluntarily adopted and implemented the CCSS

-However at start of 2020- approx 20 states called rollback on CCSS.

First Step Act (2018)

-Expanded early release programs

-Modified sentencing laws

-Funding for job training and other programs designed to reduce recidivism (person who does bad does bad again)

Sheriff

-the oldest law enforcement office within the common-law system

-More than 3,000 sheriffs elected nationwide

-In many states, sheriffs can seize almost any property used in the commission of a crime, civil asset forfeiture

-County sheriffs make up the vast bulk of the law enforcement capacity in the United States

Racial Disparities in Sentencing

-On average, Black men receive more sentences that are 20 percent longer than the sentences Whites and Latinos receive for similar offenses.

-By 2006, nearly one-third of all Black ages 20-29 were in prison or under some form of supervision such as probation of parole.

-30% Black people presented warm attitudes to police as opposed to 74% white.

Terry vs Ohio

Supreme Court ruling which legitimized the police practice of stop and frisk (police tactic definition)

Social Security Act

-1935 FDR Passed

-Social Security

-Joint federal-state program for unemployment

When were Medicare and Medicaid created?

1965

Affordable Care Act

-Obamacare

-Medicaid expansion

-Individual mandate (eliminated by Congress in 2017)

-Parents can keep their children on insurance til age 26 (number of young adults with health insurance declined from 3 mil to 1 mil)

-The Affordable Care Act has attempted to expand health insurance by creating state health insurance exchanges, online marketplaces where consumers can choose among different health plans. Under the federal law, states themselves can run the exchanges if they choose. Only 17 states do this

What are Special Districts doing with your taxes?

-Spend roughly 200 billion annually according to one estimate

-Special districts in Kentucky found 40% of them didn't even bother to submit a budget.

-They spend a lot of money.

States that give most and least power to local governments

Least: Idaho and West Virginia

Most: Oregon and Maine

What state has a regional government, and what is the name of that regional government

State: Oregon

Name: Metro

An urge to merge

-St Louis Board of Freeholders, as of 2019, had managed only two successful meetings in more than 100 years.

-First was in 1876 when the board met only to precipitate "The Great Divorce", which decisively split the city of St Louis from the County of St Louis.

-2019, a new push to combine the city and county emerged, but derailed when a top official behind the merger was indicted for bribery, and the movement has floundered ever since.

Which state has only one school district?

Hawaii

How many states use a state lottery to help fund education?

27 (could be 26???)